Brought up at the court of the Báthorys, Bocskay won the confidence of Sigismund Báthory, prince of Transylvania, whom he advised to form an alliance with the Holy Roman emperor (who was also the Habsburg king of Hungary) instead of with the Ottoman sultan. When in 1599 Báthory’s successors deprived Bocskay of his estates, he fled to Vienna to seek protection and redress. He was alienated, however, by the emperor Rudolf II’s attempts to deprive royal Hungary of its constitution and the Hungarian Protestants of their religious liberties. Bocskay, a devout Protestant, therefore sought Turkish aid and helped the Turkish armies in driving the Habsburg forces out of Transylvania. As a reward the Hungarian Diet elected him prince of Transylvania in 1605, and he was recognized as such by the sultan Ahmed I, who sent him a magnificent jeweled crown made in Persia.

Although Bocskay refused to assume the title of king, he made skillful use of the Turkish alliance. Rudolf, faced with the possible loss of Hungary and strongly urged by his brother the archduke Matthias, entered into negotiations with Bocskay and ultimately made peace with him by the Peace of Vienna (June 23, 1606). This treaty restored and guaranteed all constitutional and religious rights and privileges of the Hungarians in Transylvania and in royal (i.e., Habsburg) Hungary. Bocskay was recognized as the prince of Transylvania, and the right of the Transylvanians to elect their own princes was affirmed. Soon afterward he concluded with the Turks the Treaty of Zsitvatorok, which confirmed the provisions of the Peace of Vienna. Bocskay’s sudden death in 1606 was attributed to poison given him by his chancellor, Mihály Kátay, who was killed in the marketplace of Kassa (Košice in Slovakia) by the enraged followers of Bocskay.